Charred Broccoli

This past weekend I prepared broccoli in a way that was quite different from our usual steamed, pat of butter, squeeze of lemon way of cooking and eating it. OMG! I am hooked; I may never go back to eating steamed broccoli again. I can see doing this with cauliflower, string beans, snow peas, I'm pretty sure just about any vegetable would taste great this way. Funny thing is, I have cooked spinach in pretty much the same way and yet, it never turns out this way at all. I was loving the broccoli prepared this way so much that I was looking to lick the sauté pan clean afterwards (when it had cooled of course). I managed to restrain myself from doing so, instead, I went out and bought more broccoli, prepared it the same way and consumed vast quantities of it all weekend, occasionally breaking out into the highly energetic "broccoli dance" for the Little Girl's entertainment.

I kind of made the recipe up, so there are no exact measurements, my only suggestion, should you decide to try this fabulous, un-patented method of eating your broccoli is to just trust your taste buds.

So, here's what I did, take a large sauté pan with a fitted lid (the lid is important) and coat the bottom of it with a layer of olive oil, heat this over medium heat until a little drop of water sizzles when you flick it into the pan. Once the oil is hot, add several cloves of thinly sliced garlic (remember this is "to taste" so add more or less accordingly), a large amount of broccoli floret’s that have been trimmed and peeled scrubbed and washed and patted lovingly on their bottoms..."off you go little broccolis," a large pinch of hot red pepper flakes, a few drops of sesame oil, salt and pepper, and two pats of butter. Mix everything just enough to coat the broccoli then cover with the lid. I forgot to check how much time I left the lid on, so check under the lid frequently. What you're trying to do is get the broccoli to that “just tender” point when a fork inserted just begins to give a little. Remove the lid, and continue sautéing until the broccoli is as tender as you like but not mushy. Continue cooking with the lid off, resisting the urge to stir, this will make the broccoli break and make a mess in the pan. When the garlic has turned a dark, rich, almost mahogany color, take the pan off the heat, serve and eat. WOW! The broccoli is slightly charred and crispy in certain parts, adding a nice, but not offensive slight bitterness; the garlic is crisp yet also chewy and fragrant and gives off a nutty creamy taste that really goes well with the nuttiness of the sesame oil. The red pepper flakes add a nice heat to the dish without overpowering anything and the salt and pepper enhance the flavor of everything. Yum!

The dish is a little ugly looking and might be a little off putting to some, after all, it is slighly burned broccoli and garlic, but the payoff is worth it. Sorry I have no pictures to show, you see, with the first batch I was skeptical as to how it would taste, and then, once I discovered how good it really was, I never stopped scarfing it down long enough to take a photo. Maybe next time...

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I go back to work this evening, after having been off for close to four months on maternity leave. In many ways I'm looking forward to going back and in many ways I'm not. I'm stressing about leaving Ellie behind, which is ludicrous since she'll be with her dad... this is hard for me, I've become very attached to the little cutie. We've set things up so that we don't have to hire childcare, I will work nights, Tom will work days, we'll probably never see each other but Ellie will benefit from this immensely (I hope). The plus side to going back is that the "Locusts" are always more than happy to devour all the goodies I like to make, which is a very good thing, because I need more room in the freezer! I won't be able to post as much as I'd like, between going back to work, taking care of the Little Chickie, and dividing our time between two homes I think posting to the blog will be slowing down (at least for a while). I'm hoping to still do at least a couple of posts a week, so come back and visit once in a while...

Written by Deb on April 5, 2004 02:21 AM